Freehand: Sketching Tips and Tricks Drawn from Art Paperback – September 10, 2013

This is probably the best art books I ever purchased. I purchased this with the intent to learn more about sketching skills, instead it was a book filled with inspiring ideas. If you have a creative block or want to learn about various styles of sketching without the dragged out theories, this book is for you! It’s a great read with great ideas. It’s an easy read with big project inspiration. The book is compact and printed nicely.

This compact little book does a lot to jump start the creative process. It's not just for beginners; there are many excellent reminders about different concepts on which to base a drawing, or any work of art. It explores a variety of media. The illustrations are delightful and very varied, ranging from tightly drawn to wild, abstract to very realistic, etc. I particularly enjoyed the examples combining digital art or photocopies with hand drawing or coloring. This is a wonderful gift for any artist.

I LOVE this book! The size was unexpected, but I was so excited when ordering, I didn't pay attention. Turns out the smaller size actually makes it easier to take with me when I sketch outside of my studio. I think it's beautifully laid out. I love that each layout is a description on the left page and sample of art on the right page. It's designed to inspire one to think outside the box and to try new things. One of the best art books I've picked up in a while.

I'm taking a Line Drawing class at the moment and the instructor recommended this book.I was a little surprised at it- it's very small (even though I knew the dimensions, the fact that it's about the same size as my hand took me by surprise!) but very thick. Inside are lots of CONTEMPORARY drawings, illustrations, and mixed media work by many different artists. I have to admit, most the work isn't exactly my style (I'm drawn to more organic and playful stuff) but the author does a great job of pointing out why she chose to include the work and what the artist did to make the art piece work, via line, composition, shading, colors, etc.For someone who has a basic sense of drawing/illustration, and wants to learn more and get a nudge in the right direction, this is a good resource to have. There's lot of good information in here re: the technical aspects of making a drawing work.But if you are simply looking for eye candy, make sure you love the artists represented in this book. And if you want an instructional book that REALLY gives you the nuts and bolts of sketching, illustration, and line-drawing, this may not be the book to start out with.I'd love to see another book in this series, with different styles of artists represented. Recommended.

I love this book as it addresses approaches to different media that are beautiful and aesthetic, with "just enough" explanation to push me to the next level of my own explorations. Also have given it as a gift to several artist or aspiring-artist friends and they all heartily appreciate it. Two workshop instructors this year had it on hand as reference and are as enthusiastic as I am about Birch's presentation. My most recent "giftee" is my 5-year-old granddaughter who not only gets it, but often relaxes with the book to explore new ideas. Compact enough to travel with and often include it in my travel art kit.

It's an amazing book! Very inspiring! And I like the compact size.

I got really excited when I picked up this book at my library. I wanted a book with contemporary artwork sorted by style, medium, and subject. This book does have the examples organized this way. So I went ahead and bought a copy. I pick pages at random to get inspiration for my daily sketches.I should have looked more closely at my library copy, though. The text is unreadably bad and sloppy in a lot of places. I pretty much have had to skip over it. At least one artist is incorrectly referred to as male when she is female. I get the feeling that the author did not meet, interview or even ask the artists about their work in enough detail. She makes guesses about the artists' intent and use of materials. Some artists are given too many pages in the book. Some of the work is plain weak. I've visited several of the artists' websites (helpfully listed at the end of the book). Many of them have stylish but empty artwork, or, more annoyingly, the work style (especially digital and collage work, or repetitive doodle work), is probably a cover for a plain lack of drawing ability. This would be less of a problem if each artist were just given a two-page spread, but many individual artists pop up more than once in the book. That feels like filler and padding.I think that the makers of this book have their hearts in the right place, and the book might be more helpful to some people who really enjoy this style of art. It will probably grate on your nerves a bit if you have had more exposure the art world in general, though.

I purchased this book to do a study alongside the community at Sketchbook Skool. So far it has been a pleasure to look for inspiration and I suspect I'll come back to it time and time again!Thank you! :)